1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a trace detecting sensor, and more particularly, to an optical trace detecting module with an optical path diverting element.
2. Related Art
With the development and progress of science and technology, computer equipments, no matter the personal computers (PCs) or notebooks, have become indispensable tools for providing convenience in people's daily life or work. However, window interfaces of the computer equipments can only be manipulated through pointing input devices, such as a mouse, touchpad, and trackball.
For example, in an optical mouse, an optical sensor module mounted on the bottom projects a light. The light is refracted at the surface of an object into an optical sensor of the optical sensor module, so as to detect a change of the light refracted by the surface of the object, and generate a corresponding cursor movement signal.
In recent years, a touch control module capable of manipulating a cursor and executing a preset function is further developed to completely replace the functions of the optical sensor module and buttons of a conventional mouse. The touch control module is disposed in an upper housing of the mouse. A user may selectively manipulate the position of the cursor through the optical sensor module on the bottom of the mouse or slide a finger on the touch control module to generate a corresponding control signal.
The optical elements of the conventional touch control module are stacked to form a complete optical path. Therefore, a projection distance between a light projecting diode (LED) and the optical sensor has to be relatively elongated, such that a light from the LED may be accurately refracted into the optical sensor. However, as a result, the touch control module must occupy more space, and accordingly, an electronic device installed with the touch control module is unable to be thinned due to its greatly increased volume, thus deviating from the current requirements of a light, thin, short, and small electronic device. In addition, in the manufacturing, the layout of the components and the touch control module inside the mouse must be considered, such that the manufacturing processes are increased.